can't get hold of employers for references..

[vannah]

Have no idea what to do. I worked in Education a few years ago, had 2 'managers' both still work for the organisation though I hear their jobs are to be axed in December. I need a reference from either one of them but neither will respond to my calls to their work/mb numbers.

As far as I know I left on ok terms, did my job well, left to have babies... did not compete for new job when my contract came to an end.
One thing makes me suspicious - a few years when I had my daughter, I sent everyone in the organisation an email informing them about her, and said goodbye and that I shall miss working for the team. Not a single reply.

I now need a reference to prove that I actually did work for them, before they all go, but what to do when being ignored-again?

thankyou

Have you tried writing to them?

littlefish I'm going to either send them an email each or a written letter (dont know which is best?) the week after half term.
Just shocked that they've heard my messages and have chosen not to respond..

Typically a reference like this just confirming you worked for an organisation would be done by HR - not the managers you worked for. For legal reasons a lot of organisations give absolute bare minimum references now.

I suggest you ring the HR dept.

Ah. Thankyou beenbeta...didnt think of that

i second the idea to contact HR or whoever deals with recruitment directly

my H's last employer had it written into their contracts they could NOT respond to requests for references, not even personal ones, all they would give is one from the HR Manager stating dates worked, number of days off, benefits (salary and holidays) if appropriate, plus if they would employ again I think

this caused my H to lose out on a job he'd interviewed for - his potential employer didn't believe that H had done a great job there but couldn't get a personal reference (although that company did faff us around a lot with interviews so, no huge loss there, and H ended up getting a job paying about 1/3rd more, so they did us a favour)

this was despite H having (private) emails from his manager saying "thanks for going above and beyond on projext ABC" as well! but he couldn't showthem in case it got out (this was a government contract, MOD, and required security clearance - didn't want employer to think he'd bend privacy rules,e tc etc)

i just couldn't believe that no matter if you were a terrible employee or a great one, the reference from his old HR would be the same

it is DEFINITELY rude of your old company not to email back to let you know if any of the above is the case though - daft question but have you checked that you're sending it to an email address that is still active (if anyone's changed names years ago, or left the company, whatver), their reply isn't in your spam, etc? just in case!!

thankyou frgr - thats awful about your H. Thing is I haven't emailed them yet but have called both on their mb and landline phones and left messages -4 days ago. No response...

oh dear in that case i would definitely look into this via HR, just give them a call - it must be a very odd company if their HR dept doesn't get back to you! good luck xx
p.s. might be worth asking the swtichboard or whoever answers for the name of the person in charge of references, + their email - that way if they're not in the office/on another call you can set out exactly what you need in an email on the same day. mutli-tongued attack! :)

brilliant thankyou frgr - will do.